(birds chirping)
(uplifting music)
- [Narrator] What's this?
Oh, deer.
It's the Alseid.
This creature may resemble the noble centaur,
but where equines are best suited to the open plains,
the nimble, deer-like bodies of the Alseid
are well-suited to the woodlands where they reside.
This is just one of the extraordinary creatures
who make their home on our plane.
- Everyone gets amped about new official D&D books,
but did you know that in between every rulebook
or adventure setting, dozens of third party publishers
are releasing books full of content for D&D
that is just as good as, and sometimes even better,
than the official stuff?
There are so many reasons to try third party content.
Maybe you feel like
you've already played out all the core options
in your character builds,
or maybe you're a DM and your players know so much about D&D
that it's impossible to surprise them,
or maybe you've run into a problem
or a weakness in your game
that third party content was specifically created to fix.
It's basically like the D&D version of downloading mods
for a video game.
Now, just like video game mods,
there are good ones and bad ones.
If you've ever asked people
about their favorite third party content,
you have heard of Kobold Press, the sponsor for this video.
They're known for creating a huge variety
of really in-depth, thoroughly playtested content,
from monsters to campaign settings and back.
Today, I specifically wanna show you their new book,
"Tome of Heroes", which is focused on player options,
but also has some frankly incredible resources for DMs
on things like downtime activities
and creating connections within your party.
They funded this book on Kickstarter,
so if you pre-order it at the link in the description,
you are also getting the benefit
of nearly $400,000 in stretch goals worth of added content.
Today, I'm gonna walk you through this book,
not just to show you what's in it,
but also to show you how to bring third party content
into your game in general.
Plus, there's a cool deer-centaur
and I will be trying out my best attempt at an Irish accent.
- Ah, you're curious about Alseid?
Most are.
My people rarely leave their homes in the woodlands.
The forest is a living creature,
and too many outsiders see it instead as an obstacle
or a resource.
My people can even be dangerous
to those who don't respect the wood.
- [Ginny Di] The first chapter covers races,
and that includes both brand new races, like the Alseid,
and new subraces for core classes,
like the Riverfolk Halfling or the Frostfell Elf.
Some of the new races are irresistibly cute, like the Erina,
who are little hedgehog guys,
and the Mushroomfolk,
which I would 100% be using for this video
if I thought I could effectively cosplay them.
But they're not all cottagecore pandering.
I say that lovingly,
as a cottage core sucker who loves being pandered to.
Some of the races are more for the goth and metal type.
For example, one of the new races is the Darakhul,
who are undead and get different stats
depending on what race they were before they died.
They've even made Shade a playable race,
so you can play as a spirit that lingers after death.
The new subraces are mostly location-specific,
like the Dunewalker and Frostfell Elves,
who are from the desert and the arctic, respectively,
or the Spindrift Dwarves, who spend their lives at sea.
But there are also some wackier ones, like Wyrd Gnomes,
who can catch glimpses of the future.
I'm predictable and obsessed with centaurs,
so obviously I had to pick the Alseid
to cosplay for this video, which are half-elf, half-deer.
These are inspired by the nymphs of glens and groves
that the ancient Greek poet Homer talked about
in some of his writings.
There's a lot of fun lore for this race,
like the culture around their antlers.
- All Alseids have antlers,
at them to figure out how old we are
because they branch about once every 10 years.
As you can see from mine, I'm in my thirties.
But once you hit a century,
they only branch by the blessing of the forest.
That's why it's so rare to see an Alseid
with more than a dozen points.
- [Ginny Di] If I didn't love the aesthetic antlers so much,
I might have made my character an Alseid exile,
because the worst punishment they perform on one another
is to saw off their antlers, which is extremely metal.
Each race has this level of detail,
not just stats, but story and context
that you can use to build your character.
I love how lore can spark fun ideas
for backstories and characters
that I might not have come up with on my own.
New races means new concepts to play with
in your creative process.
Now, I know that a lot of DMs are hesitant
to allow full third party races into their games
over concerns about balance and compatibility.
But I have to say, as far as broken homebrew goes,
I think race is probably one of the lowest risk places
to diverge from the core rules.
Ability score improvements
and features like Darkvision and weapons proficiencies
are pretty standardized across D&D races,
so it's easy to compare a homebrew race to a core race
and see at a glance if they look like they're in line.
Plus, you can always make tweaks as you go
if something isn't working.
Don't be afraid of taking risks and trying new things,
because you're not locked into anything.
- I told you the woodland is a living thing,
and if you protect it, it'll protect you.
As a Grove Warden, I've earned the forest's trust
and its blessing.
My senses can travel through the roots of growing things,
and when I'm in danger,
the earth itself will come to my aid.
- [Ginny Di] There are over 70 subclasses in this book,
some for each of the 12 core D&D classes,
and I pretty much guarantee that you'll fall in love
with at least one of them.
There's the catburglar rogue, the portal cleric,
the way of the dragon monk, the black powder sorcerer,
so many options.
I know I have a really specific area of interest here,
but if you're into nature shit,
you're gonna have a hard time picking a favorite.
I feel like there's just a wealth
of wonderful nature-y content in this book.
There's a druid circle called the Circle of Bees,
where you can control stinging insects
and grow a stinger to use for unarmed strikes
and speak the bee language, which is called Bee Dance.
At 14th level, you get a feature called mantle of bees.
I'm sorry, it took so much willpower not to pick this one.
You can take a warlock patron
that's a primeval forest called the Old Wood.
The flavor for the pact boons is just immaculate.
Your familiar can be an Awakened Shrub,
and if you're pact of the tome,
you have to plant your spell book in the ground
for it to grow new spells.
But despite the lure of these subclasses,
I already play a Druid and a Warlock,
and I've been curious about Rangers lately,
so for this character,
I picked the Grove Warden ranger archetype,
which lets you do things like sense nearby humanoids
when you're in the forest
or use an area-of-effect move that makes the earth move
so that enemies have to make dex saves
or be pushed and fall prone.
- The forest helps me in small ways now,
but as our bond grows
and I continue to prove myself its protector,
the powers it can grant me are remarkable.
The plants and earth
will literally rise up to attack my foes
or stand as a shield between me and one who means me harm.
- [Ginny Di] With over 70 subclasses in this book,
I just wanna remind you
that you don't have to make all of them available
to your players.
That is a lot.
Instead, maybe one of your players
specifically has a story developing for their character
that doesn't quite line up with the available subclasses
in the core ruleset.
In that case, one of these subclasses
might just be a better fit for the story you're telling.
There are multiple subclasses in this book
that suit my player characters better
than whatever reflavored, reskinned,
multi-class combinations I've come up with
trying to make their abilities match the idea
that I have in my head.
- Most Alseid are raised amongst the trees,
but as far as I know,
I'm the only one who was raised by one.
When my people were killed in a terrible forest fire,
Oakshadow did what all treants do,
he protected the forest.
As the last survivor of my grove, I was a part of that duty.
- [Ginny Di] There are much fewer background options
and an even smaller number of feats
than there are race and class options,
but a lot of them
feel pretty tied to the other character options
in this book, so they're sort of supplementary,
like if you create a Dunewalker Elf,
you might wanna take the Desert Runner background,
or for a Winterfolk Halfling,
you might take the Rimecaster feat,
which lets you do fun stuff with cold damage.
Some of the backgrounds are great resources
for players who might need a little help
with backstory ideas, like the Destined background,
which means the character has some sort of duty
or responsibility they're expected to fulfill someday,
like an arranged marriage, an inherited title,
or a family business, or the Inkeeper background,
which I just think is very cute
and would make for some really fun characters.
- My name isn't a true Alseid name, by the way.
Misia, short for Artemisia.
It's a sort of a plant,
which makes sense if a tree named you.
But when Oakshadow found me,
I was too young to know my own name.
And with all my people dead, I suppose I'll never know.
- [Ginny Di] I gave Misia my favorite background
in this book, Monstrous Adoptee.
It's basically a raised by wolves type background,
but raised by whatever you want,
aberrations, dragon, fey.
Since she's a protector of the forest,
both through her race and her subclass,
I loved the idea of her being raised by a Treant,
a creature that also protects the forest.
Plus, if you watched Merry and Pippin
just chillin' on Treebeard's limbs
while he stomped around the forest
and didn't wanna live that dream,
I can't relate to you.
Imagine a big ol' tree dude
taking care of a little Alseid fawn.
Is that not the cutest shit?
Also, from a DM's perspective,
I love this mysterious forest fire that killed her people
and left her to be raised by a Treant,
because that just leaves so many options open.
Not only does it give her a clear reason to go adventuring,
to figure out what caused it, to take revenge,
to prevent future tragedies,
to learn more about her people, the options are infinite,
but also, that fire could be tied to a larger plotline
in this world, or even to another character's backstory.
- Who better to teach the magic of plants
than a tree?
I've been learning hedgecraft
since I was knee high to a myconid.
Not only have I learned to recognize magic plants
in the wild,
I've even learned to cultivate some of my own.
- [Ginny Di] So the hedgecraft feat has some basic features,
like advantage on locating and identifying magic plants,
and letting you literally cultivate
your own little magic plants to keep with you and use,
but it's also tied to another feature of this book,
which is an entirely new magical discipline
called Hedge Magic.
Hedge Magic is all about using magical plants
to cast spells.
I'm actually obsessed with this system.
The book includes a whole glossary of magic plants,
including a visual description
and where they might be found.
Then, each plant has three possible spell levels
that it can be used at, each level doing different things.
For example, there's a plant called Champion's Lavender,
which usually grows near shrines.
For a single use-spell, you can press the flower to a wound
and the target can immediately use a hit die.
But if you're at least third level
and the flower is fresh, you can perform a ritual
to create a ward that reveals invisible creatures.
And at fifth level, and with the Hedgecraft feat,
you can cultivate a garden of Champion's Lavender,
which can magically reveal deception or guilt.
There's 15 different plants
and they all have three levels of use like that.
It's incredible, it's such an in-depth system,
and it's literally just a tiny part of this book.
There's also a second new magic discipline
called Draconic Runes, which can be inscribed
and then empowered with magic on a daily basis
to enhance or replicate spells.
For example, the rune Corporis
eliminates the need for material components
worth 50 gold or less.
But back to backgrounds and feats,
I know that you don't have to take backgrounds literally,
and that you can choose to ignore the flavor
and just focus on the mechanics.
But whether you come up with the backstory first
and then match the background to it as best you can,
or use the background options
to come up with your backstory,
the bottom line is more backgrounds means more options.
- I'm wary of fire for obvious reasons.
When I told Oakshadow I was leaving the forest,
he got me this, a Heartglow Lantern.
It doesn't burn, it glows with life energy.
In fact, if I sacrifice some of my own vitality,
it can even do things like detect undead
or let me breathe under water.
I'm not sure what kind of trouble
Oakshadow thinks I'll be getting into out there,
to be honest.
Hopefully I won't ever need it for anything
but a nightlight.
- [Ginny Di] Weapons, armor, explosives, clockwork,
trinkets, magic items, if you love stuff,
"Tome of Heroes" has a ton for you.
Special blades, whips, firearms, new kinds of armor,
practical items like a surgery kit and beekeeper's tools,
and plenty of rules for stuff
that you've honestly probably already included in your game,
just without mechanical guidance, like explosives.
This book has rules for gunpowder,
including guidance for DMs on how to incorporate gunpowder
and firearms into your games,
stats for a few different types of firearms,
and even optional rules for things like misfires.
There's a whole system for elemental bottles,
which are basically like magical Molotov cocktails.
There's a section on clockwork creations
with incredibly badass stuff,
like a clockwork warhorse mount
or a clockwork owl that can keep watch,
and a d100 table of trinkets
in case you need backstory hooks
or shop inventory or miscellaneous loot.
I love a good magic item,
like the Heartglow Lantern that I gave Misia,
or this dagger called the Momentblade.
If you crit with it,
the target skips forward in time one round,
basically losing their turn.
Just tons of super creative stuff in here.
I think items are the easiest third party content
to incorporate into a game,
because they're the perfect rewards or loot,
and they can really make shopping feel exciting,
instead of just walking into a blacksmith's shop
and knowing that they probably stock
exactly the same little table of armor
and weapons as every other blacksmith.
I think they're especially helpful
if your players already know all of the magic items
in the core rule books.
I felt really bad in my first D&D game
because the DM introduced an alchemy jug
and I knew about it from Critical Role
and just immediately accidentally metagamed
and told everyone at the table what it does, like a jerk.
But if you bring in items that your players don't know,
that really amps up the mystery and the excitement of items.
- I don't know what it'll be like out there,
outside the forest.
But I hope I'm not totally cut off from the land.
I've learned to cultivate a lot of magic plants out here,
and if you can give them some time,
they can offer you a lot of power in return.
- [Ginny Di] I've gotten a lot of requests
for a video about downtime activities,
but I honestly don't think I can offer anything
even a fraction as useful
as the concepts in "Tome of Heroes".
There are rules for everything
from establishing a reputation at a royal court,
which you can then cash in for benefits,
to raising and training creatures
to use as mounts or sell or breed,
to creating and running a criminal enterprise.
Misia would naturally make use
of the magic plant gardening activity,
which would enable her to cultivate some of the plants
that she uses in her hedgecraft.
A lot of this is stuff that you might have done before
in a D&D game, but without rulesets.
It's all well and good to roleplay raising a mount
or pet or establishing and running a keep,
but actually letting those choices impact
the mechanics of the game is next level.
The other absolutely golden resource for DMs in this section
is group themes.
Anyone who's ever used the classic you meet in a tavern hook
in session one knows how hard it can be
to bring a party together
if you don't make an effort to establish common goals
or connections between characters.
Group themes, which should be established as a party
before gameplay begins
are designed to not just link the party narratively,
but also to offer mechanical benefits
that apply to the whole group.
For example, some parties may share the haunted theme,
because everyone is plagued
by a supernatural force of some kind.
As a group, they have benefits like strength in numbers,
which means that characters can't be surprised
and have advantage against being frightened
when they are within 30 feet of other group members.
There's even adventure advice
and suggested quest hooks for each group theme.
For instance,
your haunted group might share a strange dream,
pointing them to a specific location,
or hear rumors of a priest who might be able to help them
banish their troubles forever.
Last but not least,
there is a huge list of brand new spells,
and to make sure the non-magical fighters
don't feel left out,
there is also a collection of weapon options.
Now that I play a Barbarian, I'm definitely noticing
how often my entire contribution to combat
is just I take three more claw attacks.
Weapon options allow more interesting strategic interactions
in combat, like the pinning shot,
which stops a target from moving
by pinning their clothing to a nearby object or surface
with a a ranged weapon,
or hamstring, which reduces the target's speed.
Personally, I've had players ask me
if they can do things like this,
and I've never been quite sure how to handle it,
so these mechanics might come up and become useful,
even if you don't actively inform your players
that they're on the table.
If you haven't tried bringing third party content
into your games yet,
remember, you're allowed to start small.
You don't have to include everything
from any given book in your game.
Maybe you start by just including one or two magic items
in a shop or as particularly special loot.
Maybe your fighter goes out of their way
to roleplay training,
so you reward them with one new weapon option to use.
Maybe the wizard finds one of the new spells on a scroll
or in an ancient tome,
and it's exciting and unusual, perhaps lost to history.
You don't have to treat a supplement like this
as an additional core rulebook,
you're allowed to pick and choose
when you feel like the core game doesn't have what you want,
or when you feel like bringing in something special
or unique.
Whether you're a connoisseur of third party books
or you're ready to dip your toes in for the first time,
I would highly recommend "Tome of Heroes" from Kobold Press.
This video is sponsored, but they can't make me say that.
I'm being honest here,
it really does have something for everyone.
The character options and adventuring rules
span so many themes and tones
so both players and DMs
will be able to find something in here that feels exciting.
If you wanna pick it up,
check out the link in the description
and place your pre-order for a hardcover copy.
It is also available in PDF.
By the way, if you're interested
in incorporating homebrew content,
either yours or someone else's,
make sure to check out my video
about how to do that without breaking your game.
You can watch it right here.
Also, big thanks to Ralph Stickley
for being my store-brand David Attenborough for the intro.